If you read the gossip rags, you know there’s an endless fascination with weight monitoring in our celeb-obsessed culture.
“Who’s putting on weight?” “Who’s shedding pounds? “Who’s showing off her new beach bod?” “Who’s starring in a TV show called ‘Fat Actress’?”
Well, boxing is no different. We’re talking about a sport that makes a public spectacle out of fighters stepping onto scales. A boxer announcing he’s moving to a new weight class is headline news.
[+] Enlarge Jose Luis Castillo
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Jose Luis Castillo knows what it feels like to do battle with the bulge — and lose. And if you fail to make weight? Jose Luis Castillo went from potential Hall of Famer to scourge of society for that sin.
Lately, the most noteworthy weight-related topic in the fight game has been the trend of top talents attempting the double-jump. Whereas the typical approach for fighters has long been to advance from one division to the next, an increasing number are now skipping a division in search of quality fights.
Two years ago, middleweight great Bernard Hopkins bypassed super middleweight and went straight to light heavyweight. Now reigning middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik is beefing up beyond the super middleweight limit to fight Hopkins. And last week, the news broke that welterweight titlist Paul Williams is hopping directly to middleweight for a fight against Andy Kolle, in preparation for a possible shot at Pavlik sometime in the near future.
